Lifehouse

“Smoke and Mirrors” seeks to reproduce the commercial success of Lifehouse’s earlier albums and singles, some of which attained wide commercial success and reached the Billboard Top 10, including 2005 hit “You and Me.” Though many of the songs on “Smoke and Mirrors” fit the mold of these earlier successes, the album as a whole falls short of moving the band forward, as little attempt is made to alter their musical style or voice.

It is not that Lifehouse’s sound or their songs are mediocre. Most of them are actually catchy and easy to listen to. However, “Smoke & Mirrors” lacks the boldness and initiative to be a truly impressive album, failing to incorporate new tonal or vocal elements from one song to the next. This musical complacency reveals itself as the album’s primary shortcoming. Rather than deviate from a formula which has provided some success in the past, the band instead choose to produce songs based primarily off of the same tried-and-true formula. There are slow and more upbeat songs on the album, but each type is constructed in largely the same fashion: a solid guitar intro accompanied by drums until a very cyclic melody is established, finished off with some unmemorable lyrics and an anthemic chorus.

Indeed, much as each song seems to rotate on the axis of a strong chorus, the album as a whole hinges upon the success and appeal of one or two singles. “Falling In” and “Halfway Gone” establish themselves on first listen as the album’s peaks, and much of the rest of the album’s sound and subject matter mirror the highlights of these two songs.

Unsurprisingly, some of the album’s more memorable lyrics, driven by upbeat but repetitive guitar chords, are found here. On “Falling In,” frontman Jason Wade sings, “Every time I see your face / My heart takes off on a high speed chase,” and promises, “I would never do you wrong / Or let you down or lead you on.” “Halfway Gone” takes up a similarly melodramatic theme, Wade singing, “Talk, talk is cheap / Give me a word you can keep.” These themes, however, are too often repeated throughout the remainder of the album, and the concoction of hope, despair, and love which defines many of the songs begins to lose its potency with its continued repetition.

“Smoke & Mirrors” makes few attempts at breaking away from the mold it casts for itself, but the rare displays of creativity among the myriad repetitions are quite welcome. “Wrecking Ball” features distant vocals and more original songwriting based on the lyrics as a whole rather than just the chorus. The refrain very simply states, “And I’m always swinging on this wrecking ball / While you’re building up and breaking down my wall.” Although this is repeated three times throughout the song, the chorus is sung through soft background vocals, allowing the verses between each iteration to steal some of the spotlight. Indeed, those lyrics prove to be some of the most interesting on the album, as Wade sings, “I’m a fool, a mechanical tool for you / Cause you got all the switches and levers to blow my cool.”

In a similar fashion, “Here Today, Gone Tomorrow,” marks the band’s sole instance of musical experimentation. In a departure from the soft rock which defines much of the rest of the album, this track is marked by a heavier bass line and more reverb. Much like the rest of the album, however, the lyrics still leave a little to be desired—“You’re all talk and nothing to say / We don’t want, don’t want what you’re giving away” runs the much repeated and emotionally-empty refrain. The attempt at alteration is at least admirable, however, given the rather repetitive nature of the rest of the album, however.

Overall, “Smoke & Mirrors” is marked largely by a rinse, wash, repeat cycle of music with very limited tonal shifts, alteration in subject matter, or attempts at breaking the band’s music-writing norm. Taken individually, the songs are largely appealing and easy to listen to, but in the context of the record as a whole, many of the elements are lost due to mere repetition, a problem which plagues the album throughout.